Center for Digital Democracy Raises Issues About Online Drug Marketing

The Center for Digital Democracy is raising concerns about proposals at the Food and Drug Administration to allow pharmaceutical companies to market drugs on social media and other Web sites.

"We believe that the FDA must proceed very carefully as it works to develop rules regarding digital media marketing of pharmaceutical products," CDD Executive Director Jeff Chester said in a letter Monday to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg and Principal Deputy Commissioner Josh Sharfstein. "As my organization and other consumer groups stated in their comments, social media and digital marketing raise critical consumer protection concerns." These concerns include whether there are adequate safeguards in place to protect consumers if firms use personal information to target drug-related online ads at consumers and about whether firms in marketing their products should be able to target consumers with e-mail, text messages, blast email or email list-servs, chat rooms, or social networking bulletin boards that are operated by third parties. Chester also said the FDA needs to examine the relationship between some online medical information sites and their advertisers and also whether social media sites use "marketing applications that stealthily eavesdrop and analyze conversations by and among health consumers." Noting that the FTC is currently working on a report related to online privacy, CDD also asked that the FDA work closely with the commission on the issue.